(Texas Scorecard) – An appeals court has freed the Texas Education Agency to release its 2024 school accountability ratings, despite dozens of districts suing to keep the ratings hidden from the public.
A judgment rendered July 3 by the state’s 15th Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that had favored the school districts.
The court delivered a similar ruling in April that allowed TEA to release school report cards for the 2022-23 school year.
The A-F accountability ratings, which TEA rolled out in 2018, are meant to assess how well schools are serving students and taxpayers.
The agency’s ratings are based on student achievement, student progress, and how well districts are closing gaps in academic performance for certain groups of students. The metrics used to calculate the ratings are “refreshed” every five years.
School districts sued the TEA in 2023 and again in 2024 to block the release of the ratings, claiming that the way the agency implemented the refresh process resulted in unfairly calculated ratings.
TEA was finally able to release the 2023 report cards on April 24, after the first lawsuit was resolved.
In addition to lifting the block on TEA releasing the 2024 ratings, the appellate court’s latest judgment ordered that all costs of the appeal be paid by Pecos-Barstow-Toyah Independent School District and other districts that brought the lawsuit.
Brandon Hodges, a Midland ISD trustee who intervened in the 2024 lawsuit on behalf of the TEA, hailed the judgment as a win for accountability to Texas families.
“It’s been a challenging journey, but we were confident in our success,” Hodges stated following the ruling. “Moving forward, let’s align our efforts to establish effective accountability measures to enhance student outcomes and create a fair accountability system.”
The TEA has not yet announced when the 2024 accountability ratings will be released to the public.